STEM and robotics education at the TDSB combines inquiry-based learning, technological exploration with collaborative problem-solving to foster student engagement and achievement. From elementary tool safety to advanced work-integrated experiences, students and educators gain the knowledge and skills to succeed in a rapidly changing world.
Knight Owls Robotics
At least twice each week, a group of 70 grade nine to twelve students meet to gain hands-on experience with building, designing and programming robots. With guidance from Stephen Wong, an educator with a strong interest in STEM, students choose to focus on what interests them most and take the lead in developing their own projects.
Mr. Wong recently won a Prime Minister’s award for Teaching Excellence. The Knight Owls came to life after he helped convert a storage room into a workshop space for students. With some additional fundraising, the workshop also gained equipment like 3D printers and laser cutters.
Since 2022, the Knight Owls have taken part in the FIRST Robotics Competition – the largest high school robotics event in the world, involving over 3,700 teams from 28 countries. In each competition, students have six weeks to design, build, and program an industrial‑sized robot.
They have earned over 10 awards, consistently advancing to the Ontario Provincial Championships. In 2025, they won a District Event, ranking 14th out of 130 teams in Ontario, and were the top‑ranked team in the TDSB. That spring, the Knight Owls also joined 22 other Canadian teams at the World Championships in Houston, Texas, where 600 teams from around the globe competed. In the Curie Division, the Knight Owls placed 9th out of 76 teams.
The Knight Owls engage students from all backgrounds. As a student-led team, members build real experience in engineering and trades while developing teamwork, leadership, critical thinking and creativity.
Robotics on the rise
After participating in a FIRST Tech Challenge in 2021, three teams of TDSB students expanded to six, bringing together over 100 students and volunteers from multiple grades.
Through their extracurricular work, students have had the opportunity to become global learners and leaders, involving more female-identifying participants in STEM educational pathways and fields. Key learning opportunities have ranged from:
- hosting STEM workshops for youth from their elementary feeder schools at TDSB schools, community centres and public libraries;
- mentoring Junior FIRST Lego League Robotics Teams across the TDSB;
- conducting coding, hackathon and 3-D printing workshops for high school teams and teachers wishing to start their own robotics teams;
- hosting STEM-focused summer camps; and
- hosting Fall and Winter Fiestas and the North Scarborough Robotics Qualifier, bringing more than 40 robotics teams from across the province together each year.
The Eureka! conference
On February 14, 2025, the Science, STEM and Robotics Department collaborated with the Mathematics and Global Competencies, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Departments to host the annual Eureka! Conference.
The event attracted over 300 grades 7 to 10 educators, creating a platform to engage in Science and STEM-based pedagogies, including the design thinking process. Participants valued the conference's role in fostering new collaborative educator networks.
Elementary tool safety and the skilled trades
The department provided grades 4 to 8 students with opportunities to engage in hands-on STEM learning through school and provincial competitions designed to hone a broad spectrum of technological problem-solving skills, with a focus on using hand tools, construction techniques, and robotics.
This year, 20 schools participated in the inaugural Classroom Technology Challenge and over 1,300 students engaged in engineering and technological problem-solving tasks in their classrooms.
The Science, STEM, and Robotics Department facilitated specialized safety awareness training for elementary educators. The training focused on integrating the use of safe tools and exposing learners to skilled trades pathways.
Expanding pathways through the Bringing STEM to Life Program
The Science, STEM and Robotics Department at the TDSB and the Lassonde School of Engineering’s k2i Academy delivered the "Bringing STEM to Life" summer program at over 50 schools participating in the program's two components.
The Work-Integrated Learning Experience offered 61 students at 33 TDSB schools the chance to earn high school credits in Physics and English, while conducting hands-on research in professional lab settings with York University professors and mentors.
This initiative focused on encouraging self-identifying girls, Indigenous, and Black youth to explore STEM pathways. There were incredible markers of success:
- 100% course completion rate
- An outstanding course median mark of 93% was attained by Physics students
- A course average of 89% was achieved by students in the English course
- All students completed 120 hours of paid work experience.
One student said, “This experience solidified my desire to explore this field further and has given me a clearer understanding of the practical applications of computer science in real-world scenarios."